1st Fallschirm-Panzer Division Hermann Goering

The 1st Fallschirm-Panzer Division Hermann Goering, also known as the Herman Goering Division, was an elite German Luftwaffe armored division that existed from 1935 to 1945. The division, named for the German air force commander Hermann Goering, was one of the best units in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany, and the division took part in the Anschluss, Occupation of Czechoslovakia, the invasions of the Netherlands and Belgium, Operation Barbarossa, the Western Desert Campaign, Operation Husky, the Vistula-Oder Offensive, and the Battle of Bautzen, fighting on most of Germany's land theaters during the war. During its time in Italy, the division took part in reprisals against the local population in revenge for partisan attacks, and 800 of the division's soldiers took part in the brutal suppression of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising in Poland. The division defended the ruins of Festung Warschau in January 1945, and the division suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Soviet Red Army. The division retreated into Silesia and Saxony in 1945, and the division failed to break out of its encirclement to surrender to the US Army in May 1945; the division was instead forced to surrender to the Soviets.